Micromechanical structures, such as cantilever bridges, doubly supported bridges, and diaphragms have been made and used for sensor applications. However, until now no micromechanical structures have been made with joints that are rotatable, sliding, translating or in combinations of these degrees of freedom. Also no mechanical energy-storage elements (such as springs) have been made in this dimensional range. Potential uses for such structures are many, and the present invention is directed to them. Uses include the production of miniature pin joints, gears, ratchets, cranks, slides, springs and other mechanisms which have almost numberless applications in macroscopic assemblies.
An object of this invention is to provide micromechanical joints with fixed and rotating members having or capable of having dimensions measured in the ranges afforded by present day microfabrication lithography, typically from tenths of micrometers to hundreds of micrometers.
Another object is to provide micromechanical elements and joints with relatively translatable parts, such as relatively sliding members.
Another object is to make such mechanical elements by using thin-film technology for the structural members and integrated-circuit microfabrication technologies for their overall production.
Manufacture of such joints opens important avenues for further development. The new structures of this invention can be batch-fabricated into multi-element mechanisms on a single substrate, or they can be freed entirely from their host substrate and be assembled into separate structures.
The method of this invention makes possible unheralded precision in the construction of miniature mechanical parts. Routine control of millionths of a meter is quite reasonable.
This invention has many applications in the micromechanical field, such as optical elements, valves for fluids, ratchets, timing elements, analog computing elements, digital logic elements, accelerometers, engine-knock sensors, optical shutters, and force or torque transducers.